Skip to main content
Students homeNews home
Story
11 of 20

Emerging Artists Share Pieces of Themselves

Works by four SMFA at Tufts students and recent alumni are now on display at the MFA
News Staff | Thu, Feb 13, 2025

All art gives clues to an artist’s identity, whether through bold-stroke statements or cryptic symbolism. But can we ever see more than pieces of who these artists are? In “Fragments of Self,” a juried exhibition of SMFA at Tufts student works now on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), four emerging artists reveal portions of themselves as immigrants, mythologists, historians, inheritors, and other identities that defy labels.

As the exhibit description notes, “each of these artists helps us understand how identity is not a singular idea or ideal, but a variable and evolving experience.”

The exhibit was organized with support from their MFA mentor Michelle Millar Fisher, the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts; MFA curatorial assistant Daisy Alejandre; and the Tufts University Art Galleries. It was curated by María Fernanda Mancera, AG23, who received her master’s in art history and museum studies from Tufts in 2023, and Nick Nemeth, AG25, a second-year graduate student in that program. 

This peer-to-peer curatorial experience is a feature of this biannual exhibition of student work, which highlights the close cooperation between the museum and the school in support of the next generation of artists and curators. 

Below, you can listen to the artists talk about some of their works, which are on display at the MFA’s Linde Gallery through April 27.

Tufts students, faculty, and staff have free admission to the MFA with a Tufts ID.

Drawing on the history of devotional fasting, Christian asceticism, and sainthood, Cazzato’s work engages with the growing academic field of fat studies to challenge contemporary body norms while exploring themes of devotion and martyrdom. In this piece, historical depictions of Saint Catherine—a 14th-century Italian saint who died from extended fasting—are recast in flesh that is proud and claims its own space.

I’ll usually find some kind of an art historical depiction of a saint—in this case, Saint Catherine of Sienna—and literally project it onto my own body and kind of take that imagery and try to render it in oil paint. So just to see how one distorts the other and to really combine the fat form with these really traditional Catholic depictions of saints and ideas of virtue.

This intimate diptych of reclining figures set in richly detailed interior spaces offers multiple points of departure for viewers, from the color choices to the textile patterns to the knickknacks and decor in the background. Chappuis Muñoz encourages audiences to bring their own interpretations to what they see.

Anytime I paint someone, I feel like I’m mythologizing them. I mean, you’re turning someone into an image. You’re not depicting them as just an individual. You’re making them into something universal, which is—it makes them mythological to me. And you’re also preserving them in time.

I hope that people don’t try to think about why I made it or who the people in it are. I hope people can just project themselves into the painting and use it as a way to fantasize or think about myth. Not really think about what I put in it or who it’s about.

Born in Korea and now navigating life in the United States, Choi has been exploring the realm of fabric as it relates to American popular culture. In her painting “Seoul to Street,” she uses clothes taken from her own closet—a baseball jersey, a leather jacket, and a traditional Korean hanbok silk fabric—to unlock new dimensions of cultural interaction. Here, she talks about what draws her to paint clothing.

Growing up in Korea and then living in America right now, I have a lot of complex identities that I love showing through clothes. I just really liked the process of picking out which fabrics represent me. I wear these clothes in my life. These are from my closet. I love showing the texture of the clothes with the oil paint and that consistency that oil uniquely has. It really shines through different textures. I love painting the leather texture, especially because, I don’t know, it just looks so—it looks really good with oil paint.

Najar explores her identity through crafting and collecting, drawing on skills such as ceramics, felting, and embroidery that her ancestors have practiced. “It’s all about commemorating the art and the love that have shaped me,” she says. The twisting pink sculpture she stands before here—embellished with glitter, yarn, beads, embroidery, and fringe—is her depiction of how her heart looks and feels. Here, she talks about the skills she has learned from family members, including a grandmother who works in ceramics.

I wanted to recreate the glazes that she has used in her own personal practice, but kind of with my own twist. She usually works in greens and black and white. And so I kind of interpreted— added my own colorants to these recipes. And then I also come from a long line of textile practice from both of my grandmas. I have one grandma who works a lot with rug making and also wet felting. So I use felt a lot in my work and rug-making techniques: Like this little red in the heart is a little rug-making technique. Then also, on both sides, I have a lot of ancestors who do a lot of embroidery. And embroidery is a very refined, very practiced technique that is a bit different from my sloppy craft, but I still really love to interpret that in my own way. So I do still have embroidery elements to kind of commemorate that.